Supersonic printing method and system thereof

ABSTRACT

A printing method and system wherein the printing is produced by a supersonic beam impacting against a pressure responsive material, such that the pressure action of the supersonic beam causes printing or impression. The printing system comprises a source of supersonic beam, a modulating system arranged in the path of the supersonic beam to modulate the same, such as to reproduce predetermined characters, a focusing assembly to focus the modulated supersonic beam onto one face of the pressure responsive material and to cause sweeping thereof across the latter to produce impression of a predetermined image.

United States Patent 1191 Montoya 1 Sept. 23, 1975 SUPERSONIC PRINTINGMETHOD AND SYSTEM THEREOF [76] Inventor:

Apt. 7, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 181 22 Filed: July 10,1973

21 Appl. No: 377,902

[52] US. Cl. 197/1 R; 101/1 R; 178/30; 178/DIG. 7; 346/] R; 346/77 R[51] Int. Cl. B41J 3/20 [58] Field of Search....101/426,l R, DIG. 5,DIG. 13; 197/1 R; 332/2, 58, 68; 250/511-513;

181/0.5 ED, 0.5 R; 346/74 R, 74 M, 74 MP,

75, 76 R, 77 R, 77 E; 116/137 R; 178/30, 31,

DIG. 7

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,138,219 6/1964 Blizard181/.5 ED 3,154,370 10/1964 Johnson 346/77 R 3,187,669 6/1965 Greenblottet al... l01/DIG. 5 3,193,408 7/1965 Triller 250/512 3,351,948 11/1967Bonn 101/426 X 3,461,229 8/1969 Oppenheimer IOI/DIG. l3

Marcel Montoya, 2180 Souvenir St.,

3,475,760 10/1969 Carlson 346/1 R 3,502,878 3/1970 Stewart ct a1 250/5123,532,181 10/1970 Demaria et al. 181/.5 R 3,573,847 4/1971 Saccrdoti101/1 3,643,095 271972 Shuster 250/51 1 OTHER PUBLICATIONS AcousticHolographic Printer, IBM Tech. Discl. Bulletin, Vol.13, No. 6, Nov.1970, pp. 1621-1622.

Primary Examiner-E. H. Eickholt [5 7] 1 ABSTRACT A printing method andsystem wherein the printing is produced bya supersonic beam impactingagainst a pressure responsive material, such that the pressure action ofthe supersonic beam causes printing or impression. The printing systemcomprises a source of supersonic beam, a modulating system arranged inthe path of the supersonic beam to modulate the same, such as toreproduce predetermined characters, a focusing assembly to focus themodulated supersonic beam onto one face of the pressure responsivemate-' rial and to cause sweeping thereof across the latter to produceimpression of a predetermined image.

2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures Sept. 23,1975

Patent 4 a 1 SUPERSONIC PRINTING METHOD AND SYSTEM I THEREOFThis'invention relates to the art of printing and, more particularly, toa new method and system of printing.

The use of supersonic energy has beendeveloped in the last 50 yearsandhas so far found many applicatons exclusive of printing.

It is known that a supersonic beam produces a pressure action as does anacoustic beam while being inaudible, as compared to the latter.

The applicant has noted that these particularities of the supersonicbeam may be advantageously used to produce printing or impression incombination with a pressure responsive material.

It is therefore a general object of the invention to provide a printingmethod and system using the pressure action produced by a supersonicbeam and a suitable pressure responsive material to perform theprinting.

It is a more specific object of the invention to provide a printingmethod and system wherein a supersonic beam is modulated by transversedeflections to produce predetermined characters, is thereafter focusedonto one face of a pressure responsive material and is caused to sweepalong the one face to reproduce a predetermined image.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will bebetter understood in the light of the following detailed description ofa preferred embodiment thereof, which is illustrated, by way of exampleonly in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a printing system according to thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printing system of FIG. I.

The illustrated printing system includes a transducer 1 of any suitabletype to produce a supersonic or ultrasonic beam, either mechanically orelectrically, as is well known in the supersonic art, such aspiezoelectric, magnetostrictive and electrostrictive transducers. Suchtransducers being connected in any suitable manner to an actuatingoscillator circuit. By supersonic beam is meant a beam of wave energy ofa frequency above the audible range, but below the frequency ofelectromagnetic radiation.

The supersonic beam 2 produced by the transducer 1 is of relativelylarge diameter and is projected along a path which is intersected by amodulating system including a pair of masking plates 3 and 4, eachhaving a slit extending orthogonally relative to the slit of the other.The plates 3, 4 are provided each with an extension 5 and 6 respectivelyhaving a magnetized portion and extending in the same direction as thecorresponding slit. An electromagnet 7 is positioned adjacent and onopposite sides of the extension 5, is connected to an actuating circuitand is arranged to cause up-and-down displacement of the masking plate3, whereby to allow at anyone time only a selected horizontal slice ofthe supersonic beam to pass therethrough towards the next masking plate4. The latter is similarly actuated by an electromagnet 8 and displacedlaterally to allow only a small diameter supersonic beam to pass throughthe intersection of the two slits at any particular time. In order toform a predetermined character, both electromagnets 7 and 8 are fed witha suitably varying flow of current to cause a corresponding displacementin space of the small diameter supersonic beam 9. Eachpredeterminedcharacter may preferably be recorded onto any suitable type of memory,or records, from which'it A roller or drum 10, such as an ordinarytypewriter roller, holds a sheet 11 of paper or of any other appro--priate print or impression receiving material. An inkcarrier strip orribbon 12 extends transversely in front of the sheet 1 1 and is held atopposite ends b'yreels 13L The target strip or ribbon 12 is of atypeadapted to respond to pressure against the front face thereofandhaving its rear face in contact with the sheet 11 and adapted to producean impression on the latter in response to the pressure on the frontface similarly as an ordinary carbon. Interdependent movement of the twomasking plates 3 and 4 causes the beam 9 to sweep the target strip 12along a trace forming the character desired to be printed on sheet 11.

A focusing system is interposed between the modulating system and thepressure responsive ribbon or strip 12 and includes a pivotable mirror14 arranged in the path of the modulated supersonic beam. The focusingsystem also includes a parabolic mirror 15 having the mirror 14 at thefocus thereof.

The mirror or reflector 14 is arranged to be rotated step by step, suchas by gears, to deflect the modulated supersonic beam more and morealong the strip 12 after completion of each character so as to printsuccessive characters along a printline. This synchronized progress orsweeping may be achieved by a synchronizing circuit, as is known intelevision to reconstitute the image, line by line. The parabolic mirror15 directs the small diameter beam 9 always at right angles on thetarget ribbon 12 along the print line and, thus, prevents characterdeformation.

It will be understood by any person skilled in the art oftelecommunication and printing that the abovedescribed printing systemmay be combined into a telescriptor, electrocomposer, teletype, copier,calculator and programmer.

The principle of the invention may also be applied to a system forrelief printing wherein the sheet of paper 1 1 and the pressureresponsive strip 12 are replaced by a relatively soft and possiblyhardenable material, which is suitably pressure responsive to receiveand hold the impression thereon to form relief printing.

It must also be noted that the method and system of the invention areapplicable as well to the impression of characters, drawings, diagramsand images.

Possible diffraction of the ultra-sonic beam, when passing through theintersecting slits of masking plates 3 and 4, will have a minimum effecton the printed character, since ribbon 12 can be selected with a lowprinting sensibility to thus respond only to the central maximum powerintensity zone of the diffracted beam. In fact, it can be calculatedthat the printed dot can have a diameter smaller than the wave length ofthe ultra-sonic beam when a ribbon I2 is selected with the properprinting sensibility. This, in turn, allows to choose a beam frequencyof maximum propagation through ambient air.

I claim:

1. A printing system comprising a stationarily mounted transducercapable of emitting in ambient air a large diameter supersonicnon-electro-magnetic beam, a target ink transfer sheet material in thepath of may be read to actuate the two electromagnets 7 and said beam,said target sheet material deformable under pressure exerted by saidbeam impinging thereon, to transfer ink to an impression receiving sheetdisposed contiguous to said target sheet, and a modulating assembly tomodulate said beam to print a character on said recording sheet, saidmodulating assembly including a pair of superposed masking plates, eachhaving a narrow slit, the slits perpendicular to each other and in thepath of said beam to allow the emergence of only a small diameter beamthrough the intersection of said slits, and interdependently controlledelectromechanical means to move each plate back and forth to cause getsheet perpendicular thereto along said print line.

1. A printing system comprising a stationarily mounted transducercapable of emitting in ambient air a large diameter supersonicnon-electro-magnetic beam, a target ink transfer sheet material in thepath of said beam, said target sheet material deformable under pressureexerted by said beam impinging thereon, to transfer ink to an impressionreceiving sheet disposed contiguous to said target sheet, and amodulating assembly to modulate said beam to print a character on saidrecording sheet, said modulating assembly including a pair of superposedmasking plates, each having a narrow slit, the slits perpendicular toeach other and in the path of said beam to allow the emergence of only asmall diameter beam through the intersection of said slits, andinterdependently controlled electromechanical means to move each plateback and forth to cause said small diameter beam to sweep said targetsheet along a trace forming the character desired to be printed on theimpression receiving sheet.
 2. A printing system as claimed in claim 1,further including means to displace said narrow beam step by step alonga print line of said target sheet, comprising a beam reflecting stepwiserotatable mirror in the path of said narrow beam, and a parabolicreflector having its focus at said mirror and located to receive saidnarrow beam from said mirror and reflect it onto said target sheetperpendicular thereto along said print line.